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Election Contest Falls in Franken's Favor

The three-judge state panel charged with ruling on an election contest brought by former Minnesota Republican Sen. Norm Coleman ruled unanimously in favor of Al Franken, delivering the Democrat an important victory but not (yet) signaling the end of the race.

"The overwhelming weight of the evidence indicates that the Nov. 4, 2008, election was conducted fairly, impartially and accurately," the panel said in a ruling issued this evening. Franken now enjoys a 312-vote margin over Coleman.

Franken held a press conference outside his home at 8 p.m. local time in which he said that it was "long past time we got to work," according to Aaron Landry, a Minnesota-based blogger.

National Democrats also immediately seized on the ruling to call for Coleman to concede the race. "Al Franken won the election, Al Franken won the recount, Al Franken won the contest, and now Al Franken should be allowed to get to work for the people of Minnesota," said Bob Menendez (N.J.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Coleman, however, seems to have no intention of stepping aside.

Ben Ginsberg, legal counsel for Coleman, released a statement moments after the ruling was issued insisting the former Senator would appeal the decision to the Minnesota Supreme Court. "The court's ruling tonight is consistent with how they've ruled throughout this case but inconsistent with the Minnesota tradition of enfranchising voters," said Ginsberg.

The next step in this (unending) process begins when Coleman formally files his appeal. (He has 10 days to do so.) Then the state Supreme Court takes over -- a process that could take a month or many months depending on the arguments made by the two sides.

I can only assume Coleman is waiting to take his case to the US Supreme Court where they have a track record of awarding an election to the Republican loser.... (PS: Gore had 500,000 more votes than Bush)

Hey armpeg, get your story straight! "Socialist" didn't stick -- Obama is now officially declared a "fascist" by the witless gasbags doing your thinking for you. And to think, you tin-foil-hat types used to be so GOOD at staying on message....

Armpeg, the only scum is in your bathroom mirror every time you step in front of it. Do you practice goose-stepping in your spare time. Norm Coleman has lost the Senate race, fair and square. You and he should take a long walk, off a short cliff. I don't even live in Minnesota and I am a Franken Fan. An American; a Democrat.

Coleman should appeal this and use every means to keep this scum Franken from taking this stolen Senate seat. Coleman won the race, but the corrupt Mafia-like Democrap Socialist Party are trying to steal this one, and with a Democrap Socialist-

Posted by: armpeg | April 14, 2009 1:02 PM |
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I like the way you think armpeg. We Republicans are so much better. We are the party of the KKK and Aryan Nation. We'll show these colored people of the "Democrap" party a thing or two. With our sub-high school education I say we burn all books and liberal-born babies. Close all colleges and universities and open the gun shows to people on haldol. I want Sean Hannity on TV all the time, night and day, without liberal left-wing commercial interruptions. You go armpeg...I'm with you more than 110% cuz that is what I was told by the voices in my head.

Coleman should appeal this and use every means to keep this scum Franken from taking this stolen Senate seat. When the polls closed and the votes where counted, Coleman was ahead by 2,500 votes, and that should have been the final count. What the Franken people did was to find new votes, that where probably cast AFTER the polls had closed with the dates changed to make them appear legal, when in fact they weren't. It's what the Democrap Socialists did in Washington State in the Gov. race there, where they also got away with it. Coleman won the race, but the corrupt Mafia-like Democrap Socialist Party are trying to steal this one, and with a Democrap Socialist--controlled court system in MN. they'll probably get away with it.

The real problem is that America is no longer a representative democracy. Or more accurately, the representatives no longer represent the democracy.

The Amercican politcal system represents itself - its sole purpose is to keep itself alive. Until "we the people" acknowledge this to be true and take steps to correct the system, all manner of nonsense will continue to be perpetrated by those elected to public office, thereby unnecessarily hastening the inevitible decline of America as a singular world power.

What? No "Sore Loserman"? No chanting for an "up-or-down vote" in the Senate? No slamming of evil trial lawyers for trying to put the election in the hands of those evil "activist judges"? Where is the outrage, GOP? Where is the outrage?

Oh, Right. When it's a Republican on the short end of it, that's different, isn't it? Lawyers, stalling tactics, demands for a rerun of the vote -- anything goes.

I am a big Franken supporter and donated money to his campaign. People can comment all they want about his career in entertainment, but he's an extremely smart fellow and I believe he'll make an outstanding senator.

That being said, I've followed this contest quite closely, and so far, most things have been quite fair:

There was an election and after the machine count, Coleman was ahead, but by less than one half of one percent of the vote.

According to Minnesota law, a hand recount was mandated. It was not optional.

The hand recount, carefully conducted by election officials and watched over by representatives of both candidates, put Franken in the lead.

Coleman contested the recount, which he was most certainly entitled to do. After a lengthy trial before three judges, the unanimous ruling went against him.

Now he is appealing to the Minnesota Supreme Court, which he is most certainly entitled to do.

If, however, the Minnesota Supreme Court rules against him, then I think the game is up. At that point, with or without a certificate, I think the US Senate will seat Franken. I think at that point, if the Republicans attempt a filibuster, they will fail.

Coleman, would, of course, be within his rights to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court or attempt to start another action in a federal district court, but it most likely won't prevent the seating of Franken.

I would also like to suggest to Harry Reid that the Senate make Franken's seniority rank retroactive to January, when other freshman senators were sworn in.

Al Franken is the next US Senator from Minnesota. In truth, Norm Coleman would never have been elected had not the incumbent, Paul Wellstone, a very popular Democrat, not been killed in a plane crash days before the election. No last minute Dem candidate stood a chance, but Mondale did his best.

The US Supreme Court will likely refuse to take this case since the 'due process' arguments offered by Coleman are weak, and they likely will not let the application sit for months, because of the electoral issues involved. In spite of the idealogy involved, I cannot believe that the Court would sit on this application, and be party to blocking the electoral will of the citizens of Minnesota.

Gov. Pawlenty has the power to certify the election now, but he will not. He wants a spot on the 2012 ticket, and is scared of ticking off the GOP money machine. When no options are left, Pawlenty can certify knowing that he has legal cover. Meanwhile he is content to let this drag on.

Probably both Coleman and Pawlenty have no future in national politics. They are merely pawns at this point. They are both taking orders from powerful money people (not the RNC) in the party, most of whom reside in Texas, California and New York.
John Cornyn of TX is wired into these same people, look at his comments from this point on, for clues as to what will happen.

Frankly, I think that Democrats and the left in general have been far TOO civil with the not-so-loyal opposition. Today's Republicans are determined to shut down or destroy the government if they can't run it. They would rather Minnesota not have a second senator if it isn't Coleman.

There may be a reason to be civil to someone if it gets you civility and some kind of co-operative stance in return. But the last 8 years have taught us that civility doesn't work on Republicans. The only thing the Republicans understand is brute force. They exercised it and failed and now they would rather the country fail than survive without them.

I say it's time for the Republicans to get a taste of their own medicine so they can see how they like it. Shut them out, bar them from committee meetings, redistrict their incumbents out of office, anything and everything to harass them and remove them from power.

Only a fool thinks this is a democracy in the US. It's a very limited corporate-political oligarchy that more or less manages to operate. But it just so happens that one of its sides has been taken over by religious lunatics and neo-cons, and the two of those together are a threat to the country and to the planet. Take out the threat like we took out those Somali pirates. There's no reason for civility or for mercy.

VirginiaConservative wrote: "Between Obama and Franken, it is now proven that anyone, ANYONE can run for and be elected to our highest offices."

This from the party that elected Sonny Bono, Gopher from the Love Boat, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It's pretty disingenuous of the GOP to set the bar so low and than loudly complain that it's low. But honesty, sincerity, and respect for the truth no longer appear to be among the many values that the GOP spends so much time screeching about.

adreinne_najjar, you are hardly helping our case to bring American politics back to civil discourse with a post like that. I certainly agree their time is over, and they need to let go of their loss of the Minnesota Senate seat to serve the interests of Minnesotans (although as usual they are perfectly willing to prove that their real interests have little to do with serving the people anywhere). However, the kind of post that you make damages the strong meritorious reasons why Americans have chosen Barack Obama and Democratic leadership over the empty rhetoric of the Republicans.

Oh, the levels of irony are stunning. Perhaps, however, let's entertain the notion that the US Government IS an "asylum" of sorts....tell me, VC, exactly how did it get that way? I suppose the last eight years didn't have anything, anything at all, to do with that, did they?

Please, your tired old idealess revolution ended a long time ago, and Hurricane Katrina provided Americans with an opportunity to see exactly how ineffective, detached, and uncompassionate Republican rule made it. Finally, Americans have woken up to the realization that Democrats, actually, are the ones who share and represent their good values, not the Republicans as they grandstanded on and on about for over a decade.

You can only go so far on stone-cold uncaring bigotry. Let that be the lesson of the "Republican Revolution" shall we?

Oh, and you Repugs would do well to listen to what Meghan McCain has to say about the future the Republican Party needs to choose to wander its way out of the electoral doldrums.....just a hint, it has nothing to do with tea parties!

sorry about the double posting but ever since I called Cizzilla out on a few statements of opinion in a news piece, I get the old "you've posted too many in the last few minutes" spiel, and it's only my first on any for the day. Funny how it never happens on any other blog or story on WaPo.

I'm sick of Coleman. He needs to let this go. There is no way he is going to the Senate. Franken is in, and that is that. You F'ing repugnicans need to get a life and move on. Your time is F'ing over. It is no time for the grownups to take charge. F you!

Fraudobama, your sentence structure denotes an intelligent person; yet you offered up nothing but insults. You remind me of the difference between the 2 campaigns,presidential'08. If someone would boo when Obama would mention McCain, he would say, don't boo, just go vote. I don't need to say what happened at McCain rallies when Obama's name was mentioned: the whole world was shocked and disgusted with the vitriol and hatred from GOPer's. And you keep it going with nothing but insults, instead of civil discourse. Just because I disagree with you doesn't mean I think you are an idiot. Too bad most of the Republican party doesn't get it, the whole agree to disagree adult way of civil discourse. A good example of civil discourse was Pelosi's defense of GOP house members who voted against her bill. "They are good honest citizens who voted their conscience, and did what they thought was right." Until the angry hate mongers that are on FOX and former Bush admin. members get realistic, and realize those tactics are only working with their 30% base, there is no room for civil discourse when all that is brought to the table by the GOP is fear mongering, insults,hatred, anger, unaccountability, and a not so subtle racism.

Fraudobama, your sentence structure denotes an intelligent person; yet you offered up nothing but insults. You remind me of the difference between the 2 campaigns,presidential'08. If someone would boo when Obama would mention McCain, he would say, don't boo, just go vote. I don't need to say what happened at McCain rallies when Obama's name was mentioned: the whole world was shocked and disgusted with the vitriol and hatred from GOPer's. And you keep it going with nothing but insults, instead of civil discourse. Just because I disagree with you doesn't mean I think you are an idiot. Too bad most of the Republican party doesn't get it, the whole agree to disagree adult way of civil discourse. A good example of civil discourse was Pelosi's defense of GOP house members who voted against her bill. "They are good honest citizens who voted their conscience, and did what they thought was right." Until the angry hate mongers that are on FOX and former Bush admin. members get realistic, and realize those tactics are only working with their 30% base, there is no room for civil discourse when all that is brought to the table by the GOP is fear mongering, insults,hatred, anger, unaccountability, and a not so subtle racism.

It seems to me that the citizens of Minnesota would be saying "Alright, enough is enough, time to admit defeat." by now.
How much of this drawn out nonsense should a losing candidate be able to inflict upon the citizens of the state?
For all their sneering about lawyers, Republicans sure don't mind using them to obstruct a democrat from being seated do they?

This isn't about Norm Coleman winning this seat. He knows and his party knows what the ultimate outcome will be. This is about delaying Franken's being seated for as long as possible to prevent Obama and the democrats from being that much closer to blocking GOP filibusters.

It is all the GOP has left to them. It is the only way they can possibly prevent the country from moving in the direction it voted for in November. The conservatives of course want to at least try to get back to the direction Bush was moving in reverse).

What needs to be done now is the following. 1st off the States High Court should take the case on the 1st day after it gets the paper work. Next it should force the case through in a matter of days, not months & it should rule with in days. If Coleman next takes it to the US High Court then someone needs to make it really clear to the Confederate republican Congress that unless they get Coleman to stop, they, the sitting Congress will pay dearly for these delays. This trying to be the nice guy across the isle with these Confederate republican is all BS & the House & Senate leadership needs to press down so hard on them as to make them have a real talk with Coleman...

We here in Minnesota have known for weeks and weeks that Coleman lost. We have also seen the resume of Mr. Ginsburg, his lawyer, and know that he was one of the bright fellows that got Florida to swing to Bush in the post 2000 debacle.

Ok, so Frankin is up by 300 or so votes - easier to do this without whipping out the calculator. Also I'm aware of the third candidate who received 15% of the vote, so add that to the below.

And assume there is a pool of untainted, where intention is clear, uncounted votes with all the forms signed and perfect in all other ways, how big would it have to be for NC to overtake AF's lead'

If NC gets 100% of the uncounted votes and AF gets 0, then he needs a pool of 301 - not really possible, is it? Add 15% to get 345.

If NC gets 90% to AF's 10% then the total pool needs to be 375 (formula used is % difference between AF and NC = 300, in this case 80%), not very likely. Add 15% to get 401 or so.

If NC gets 75% of the votes to AF 25%, then the pool of uncounted votes needs to be 600. Still a stretch. Add 15% to get 690 or so.

If NC gets 60% and AF 40% the pool needs to be 1500. While this is getting into the realm of possible in some alternate universe, this is not how votes are distributed in general in this election. Add 15% to get 1725 or so.

If there is a 10% difference, 55% to 45%, then there needs to be 3000 votes in the pool. Add 15% to get 3450 or so. In something as scrutinized as this race, do you think there are that many ballots left that can be counted and with NC getting that much of a lead, I don't.

So try a 5% lead, still far greater than the overall average. That's a pool of 6000, with the 15%, 6900. Now we are getting close to the numbers uncounted or improperly rejected the NC camp are claiming, but that still assumes that a much larger lead than is borne out by the overall numbers.

Half it again, and we are at 2.5% lead for NC, getting very possible if the wind is blowing from north by north-west, as they say. What size pool for that? 12,000, with 15% then 13,800. That's way out of the number of uncounted/rehjected ballot range NC lawyers are claiming.

I'm sure that NC can count. This math isn't that hard. Heck, I did it.

So my guess is pure politically motivated screwing with the system, a cynical and somewhat tainted gamesmanship is going on. Not that this is news, but really not good for Minnesota, the Country, or the political process.

Is Coleman really willing to sacrifice his career in his home state to placate a national party, which will still be in ruins whether or not they get another Senate seat? Time for him to get up and say, "They're not going to have Norm Coleman to kick around anymore." and then run again next time.

As for those who would portray Franken as a "drug-addled moron", think again. Just because he had a successful career as a comedy writer and performer doesn't mean he took drugs. And, he may not be able to see Russia from his house or fix a clogged sink, but he's no moron. If you're looking for morons, tune in to Fox tomorrow to see a few hundred anger-addled kooks protesting the tax policies of the Bush Administration, which are still in place.

Is Coleman really willing to sacrifice his career in his home state to placate a national party, which will still be in ruins whether or not they get another Senate seat? Time for him to get up and say, "They're not going to have Norm Coleman to kick around anymore." and then run again next time.

As for those who would portray Franken as a "drug-addled moron", think again. Just because he had a successful career as a comedy writer and performer doesn't mean he took drugs. And, he may not be able to see Russia from his house or fix a clogged sink, but he's no moron. If you're looking for morons, tune in to Fox tomorrow to see a few hundred anger-addled kooks protesting the tax policies of the Bush Administration, which are still in place.

Is Coleman really willing to sacrifice his career in his home state to placate a national party, which will still be in ruins whether or not they get another Senate seat? Time for him to get up and say, "They're not going to have Norm Coleman to kick around anymore." and then run again next time.

As for those who would portray Franken as a "drug-addled moron", think again. Just because he had a successful career as a comedy writer and performer doesn't mean he took drugs. And, he may not be able to see Russia from his house or fix a clogged sink, but he's no moron. If you're looking for morons, tune in to Fox tomorrow to see a few hundred anger-addled kooks protesting the tax policies of the Bush Administration, which are still in place.

The delaying tactics of Coleman are not about him being senator. The delaying tactics have to do with the Democratic control of the Senate at a time when President Obama is rolling over the Republicans in Congress. They have to use every trick in their bag to counter Obama's persuasive talents. They will keep Franken on the sidelines as long as possible.

The only thing remaining of the once much admired agenda of the GOP is the tactic of delay and stall. It does actually work as in the case of raising the minimum wage and in installing a bogus figurehead in the WH for 8 yrs. Whether these kind of unending delay tactics are good for the country is another question...and certainly a question not being asked by the GOP grand poobahs.

How is it that republicans can drag the winner of the November 2008 senate race in Minnesota, Al Franken through the court system for over five months (already) trying to prove that Coleman didn't loose his reelection to the US Senate... claiming more votes need to be counted, yet they were in such a hurry to stop the ballot count in Florida circa 2000 Bush v Gore and rushed to the USSC to have Florida's recount halted and "W." declared the winner?

I'm trying to understand why it is so important for the GOP to count votes that don't exist [2008] compared to not counting votes that did [2000].

A Republican protest will further diminish them in the eyes of the voters. If Republicans want to win an election it might be better to show real concern for the needs of ordinary Americans instead of pandering to the elite and trying to scare the rest of us.

Let the RNC waste its money funding Coleman's appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. I imagine the voters of Minnesota will remember the behavior of the Republicans the next time to vote for a Senator. I think it will a long time before the Republicans again see a winner in a Minnesota state-wide election. Not that the Republicans would recognize that they are the problem. That would take a modicum of intelligence.

Those of us from Minnesota are upset with the rest of the country for whining about this election.

This election recount was fair and above reproach. COLEMAN picked the extra ballots to be counted Franken only agreed to them. COLEMAN filed a lawsuit after the automatic recount declared Franken the winner.

The judges were one republican - one democrat - one independent. How more fair than that. It is time for Coleman to just fade away, because the more we shows his poor loosing streak the worst he makes it for other republicans in this state. Please Coleman, think of the people of this state. JUST GO AWAY.

I can't believe our special Minnesotan Senate soap opera is about to come to a wimpering end! It's so sad! It looks like Coleman is in need of consulting job. Or perhaps SNL might want to give'em a shot at comedy scripting? I never found Franken to be very funny, especially when he played that mushy feely guy years back in SNL...

Ever since Republicans stole the election from Gore through court action they have been empowered to believe in revisionist history. Just because you want it to be doesn't make it so. Norm Coleman should just get on with his life. The Republican policies he ran on didn't get a mandate. Granted, Franken didn't either but republicans should learn to live with the narrow margin of loss that dems lived with for the last eight years. Republicans, GET OVER YOURSELVES. Get a spine and stand for something.

I'm wondering why FraudObama is allowed to post calling a US Senatorial candidate a "sack of crap" and "piece of human debris." Does the Washington Post allow this to prove, yet again, that US journalism has descended to the level of British tabloid journalism?

Re Norm Coleman planning to keep appealing this case no matter what the cost--I could go into numerous article databases and find Republicans telling Democrats who complained repeatedly about the 200 election to "get over it." Once again the interests of the right wing of the Republican party come first, no matter the cost to the country.

Coleman is a bad sport and the Republicans were behind him 100% - they did not want to lose this state nor the complete control they had for eight years which got us in this mess. The states where they are in control, these characters are coming up with crazy bills that don't help the economy and take away our rights.

If I had to guess, I'd say that Coleman himself would like to drop out of this race. I think that his future in Republican circles depends on his ability to keep this process going, to continue to deny the Democrats another important vote, for as long as possible. I just hope that at some point, some court will finally put a stop to this. I hope that the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't even take the case. This is all cynical political maneauvering.
One other interesting thing about this, the complete and total lack of a "Coleman is a sore loser" narrative in the press. It speaks to just how influential the right-wing noise machine really is. Back in 2000, and briefly in 2004, Democratic Presidential candidates were instantly & interminably lambasted with questions of why they won't "be graceful" and "do the right thing & concede", and so forth. I know that this one is super-close, but Franken has been ahead for months, and ruling after ruling has gone his way. Crazy, huh?
Eventually Al Franken will be seated, and he will be good Dem, making the right call on issue after issue. That's what's really important.

The entire controversey misses the most important point. The people of Minnesota would rather be represented by a half-rate comedian in diapers than a seasoned legislator. If Coleman wins Minnesotans will get what they deserve, an idiot.

This election was and is a joke .
Shame the joke is on the voters .
They have no one representing them now.
I have a feeling they will be in the same shape . No matter who wounds up in the very end of this garbage . If these two fools were for the people they would both step back and let the election be re-run with out them in it . Nether of these guys can bring honor to the office at this point .

I am so sick of Norm Coleman, I could puke---just another Republican sore loser who doesn't give a darn that his constituency has no representation in the Senate. When he thought he was winning, he said he said it really didn't matter. He said if he lost, he had plenty of other things to do. Now, it's a different story. GIVE IT UP, NORM! Minnesota deserves better.

But in Florida, decades of law said to challenge the vote in just the way the Gore campaign did. Bush could have picked his own counties, and did. Bush also filed in Federal court against only selected counties to have military votes counted differently than in other unchallenged counties.

Oh, and the Supreme Court, to its shame, decided the case on an issue that had not been raised, let alone briefed before. The SCt of the US led the Fla S.Ct. to recast it rulings to fit the outlines that the US said it need to follow; the Florida Court did as it was told to do, and then the US (five to four) changed the law, made a decision that only applied to the one case (unprecedentedly, (pun intended) it said the case would have no precedential value) But it decided the Presidential race in favor of W Bush. A judicial coup.

Oh, and the best, most thorough recounts all found that Gore had won (just barely).

What were Coleman's words when Franken was trailing, soon after the election?

Coleman was imploring Franken to step aside for the good of Minnesota and to not let this drag on too long.

I would think Coleman's supporters would support some kind of "Colemen for Franken" to avoid this embarrassment. Not only is Coleman dragging this on at the expense of MN taxpayers but he is a hypocrite to boot!

Stunning that liberals will support any form human debris to represent them. As long as they defeat a Republican. To them it is a game. Franken is a complete idiot and yet the lib dems honor him. Speaks volumes for the moronic ignorance of liberals and their very very low standards. Unbelievable.

You conveniently forgot, as liberals are very deft at, the fact that Gore and his gaggle of lawyers descended on Florida and cherry picked the counties (Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade) mining for votes. Declared their voters were disenfranchised, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton all the liberal luminaries with their fat faces in the camera screaming their peoples couldn't (and in many cases not capable) vote. And then low and behold recount after verifies recount - in the entire state of Florida Bush had more votes. The point is, Lib Dems will do most anything to hijack an election. And this idiot in MN is a complete and utter embarrassment and the voters in MN that cast their votes for this vile, immature sack of crap are as ignorant as any human could be. Apparently to them it is all a joke. Just as the washed up comedian is.

The will of the voters has yet to be determined. Through various acts of chicanery the comedian and his backers have managed to turn a straight forward count of the votes into a tortured path wending through the voting districts. Counting one way here and another there. Coleman is just looking to get a fair count.

Chris: What's the possiblilty of the press and /or public in MN. demanding that these cases be heard ASAP (or rejected) by the courts (state or federal supreme) to assure that representaional democracy is assured quickly?

Oh how the Republicans cried in 2000 about Al Gore contesting the Florida vote. Remember the Sore/Loserman signs they held up while an unruly mob of GOPers stormed a county voting office to protest the recount. They look a little hypocritical now stretching this one out just to keep Al Franken out of the Senate a bit longer. You'd think Coleman would want to look more gracious than the guy who deprived Minnesota of a Senate vote for months on end.

Coleman has known for months that he was not going to win this election. This has not been about him. This contest is to see how long he (meaning the Senate Republicans) can keep Franken out of the Senate. He has already publicly stated that he will appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. No doubt he will take the entire ten days to do so. Depending on how soon they rule, it could be another month or two which will get them where they want to be.Close enough to July 1st, when they will appeal to the US Supreme Court. They, by than, will be on their summer break and will not hear the case until September. They may rule soon after that or it could be months, you never know. I have just outlined the Republican game plan. I too think it's time the US Senate went ahead and seated Franken. They have the right to do so and I wish they would and damn the Republican outrage.They say they will go "nuclear" if the Democrats do so but is that any different than what they have done so far? There always will be one sane Republican senator running for re-election and not wanting serious opposition.

The Minnesota Supremes will now have to decide who is the bigger one in "Schmuck vs. Schmuck". Franken will prevail. Then the screaming will begin in the U.S. senate.
You know Ted Stevens name will come up over and over. This ought to be good.

Loser pays in Minnesota so the real question is will the National Republican party, which is paying for Coleman's lawyers fees, now be willing to pony up the couple of million it will have to deposit in escrow if it appeals to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Republican party has to post enough money to pay for Franken's lawyers fees thus far if it wants to have Coleman's appeal heard by the Minnesota Supreme Court. Since this is money (plus additional lawyers fees for both Coleman and Franken during the appeal) that the Republican party will never see again I wonder how many Republican candidates running in 2010 want to see the National Republican party throw these kinds of dollars away when they might be better spent in close 2010 contests against Democratic candidates?

Coleman never represented the people of his district before, so it should come as no surprise that his stalling tactics are depriving the people of representation now. He has always been a senator of Israel anyway.

Coleman, said he has the voters of Minnesota interest at heart but it has becoming painfully clear that Coleman is only thinking of himself. How does the citizens of Minnesota benefit from his ongoing fight?

I really admire the citizens of Minnesota. They are so far ahead of the rest of the country in their efforts to dispense with the same old politics as usual. A politician in this state cannot risk being ridiculously ideological because they will get the boot. The other 49 states should take heed and we just might see our country returned back to the people of the USA!!!!

oleman is entirely consistent with the gross old party of tea bagging obstructionists. Voters be damed. Democracy be damed. As long as coleman has the financial backing of scum bags he will continue to thwart the will of the voters not only of Minn. but the nation by denying the Democrats a crucial vote in the senate. What immoral unAmerican scum. I'll bet coleman loves to rail against trial lawyers... until he can use them teo game the system toi undermine democracy. It is time for the Senate to simply seat Franken and end this farce. Franken should take his case directly to the senate. repubs loved to scream for "up or down votes" when it came to bush's unqualified extremist airhead judges and they held a tiny majority, lets hear the same hue and cry for Franken. He will be in by a 58 vote majority at minimum. republicons are just downright desicable at this point. No wnder they are dwindling away into a party of tea bagging extremists.